Alliance for Justice will show First Monday, its film on civil liberties violations since September 11 on October 7 in Washington. Here's the information we received from them today.

"Please join the Alliance for Justice for the National Premiere and Congressional Screening of our 2002 FIRST MONDAY documentary film, OF RIGHTS & WRONGS: THE THREAT TO AMERICA'S FREEDOMS. The 25-minute film explores new challenges to civil liberties in a post-9/11 America with the stories of individuals who have been adversely affected by new laws and policies.

Introduced by Susan Sarandon and featuring the music of Bruce Springsteen with author and historian Howard Zinn, constitutional law professor David Cole, and Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and professor of history Roger Wilkins on FIRST MONDAY:

Monday, October 7, 2002
Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 106
First and C Streets, NE
Washington, DC

Reception: 6:00 pm; Screening 6:45 pm. Please call 202-822-6070 to RSVP by Thursday, October 3 or email to jfreed@afj.org

Honored Guests:

Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank
Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich
New York Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney
California Congressman Robert Matsui
Gregory Nojeim - Associate Director, ACLU, Washington National Office
Professor David Cole - Georgetown University Law Center

Steve Silberman has a new article Caught in the Kid Porn Crusade in the new issue of Wired.

It's about a high-profile FBI child-pornography dragnet called Operation Candyman. In the course of three months of reporting, Steve says he uncovered "some very unsettling discrepancies between what the Attorney General and the bureau told the press and Congress, and what the agents who ran the operation told me actually occurred, with profound civil liberties implications."

Esteemed San Francisco criminal defense lawyer and past NACDL President Ephraim Margolin writes in his San Francisco Chronicle commentary, Due Process Under Fire / Security or freedom?:

"We gave the president the benefit of the doubt, hoping that his vision would prevail. We imagined that the wise people around Bush would soften his occasionally harsh rhetoric and seek a national consensus. We thought that Bush would grow with his job. "

"But then we got John Ashcroft. The more we rallied around the president, the harsher the attorney general became. While our attention remained focused on the war on terrorism, the Bill of Rights was increasingly short-changed into a Bill of Rules, exempting only the right to carry guns. All branches of government coalesced behind the president, and the country went on a war footing. "

"Though we can still support Bush in the war on terrorism, the America we love can win that war only if in the process we do not lose our liberties, our openness and our governmental accountability. We need to remember that in fighting for freedom, we should not sacrifice it blindly ourselves."

We just found this terrific article by David Cole in the new issue of The Nation. Cole argues, persuasively in our opinion,

"...one year later, it appears that the greatest threat to our freedoms is posed not by the terrorists themselves but by our own government's response. With the exception of the right to bear arms, one would be hard pressed to name a single constitutional liberty that the Bush Administration has not overridden in the name of protecting our freedom."

From Oakland criminal defense lawyer Dennis Roberts, himself a veteran of the civil rights movement, comes news of a new website Civil Rights Movement Veterans.

From the "about us" page:

"We intend to use this web site to begin renewing the ties that once bound us together in a beloved community. It will be a place for finding lost friends. It will be an online testimony for documenting what we did in the Freedom Movement, what it meant to us, and what we have done since. It will be a tool for helping fellow veterans in need. And it will be a living memorial for our fallen comrades."

Here are the events planned so far through the end of 2002:

Sept. 20 North Carolina Triangle civil rights studies group North Carolina

October 4-5 Tribute to Rosemarie & Vincent Harding Washington DC

November 8 C.B. King US Courthouse Dedication Albany GA

The site is also asking, "If you were active with CORE, NAACP, SCLC, SNCC, or another organization active in the Southern Freedom Movement during the 1960s, we ask you to contribute yourself. Please consider adding your name, history, and testimony to the Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement web site. And if the spirit moves, add a tribute for one who has moved on. "

The New York Times makes some excellent points in today's editorial,The War on Civil Liberties.

"As the Bush administration continues down its path, the American people need to make clear that they have learned from history and will not allow their rights to be rolled back. The world has changed since Sept. 11, but the values this country was founded on have not. Fear is no guide to the Constitution. We must fight the enemies of freedom abroad without yielding to those at home."

Sometimes words have more impact with a visual. Don't miss Blah3's "Question Mark#15"--nothing brings the point of what we've lost (rights-wise) home as well as this does.

Departing U.N. human rights chief Mary Robinson provides a bleak assessment of the state of human rights. She accuses governments, including the United States, Russia and China, of "hiding behind the ongoing war on terrorism to trample civil liberties and crush troublesome opponents."

"Robinson argued that the Bush administration set the tone by holding detainees from Afghanistan without charges at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. She also criticized Washington's opposition to the new International Criminal Court. "The world needs leadership in human rights, and the United States could give great leadership. It's not giving it at the moment, unfortunately."

Cincinnati is a nice place to visit, but we'd think twice now about moving there. The New York Times today reports that the city has put all of its county records on the Internet--details of divorces, tax liens, traffic tickets, arrest warrants, bond information and more.

Is this really necessary? Or even desirable? We don't think so. Trials, for example, are public but that doesn't mean all of them are televised. And the defendant must have an opportunity to address the court on the issue before a final decision is made. Trials should take place in courtrooms, not living rooms. Being open to the public should mean the public has the right to attend the proceeding, not that the public has a right to have all the details brought into their homes.

The same should apply to public records. If someone is interested, let them take a trip to their county courthouse and look through those that interest them. At a minimum, give someone notice and a chance to object before broadcasting the intimate details of their personal, financial and family lives to the world.

Privacy rights are indeed eroding in this country and we must do more to stem the tide. State and local governments increasingly are confronting this issue with little or no legal precedent. It's time to take a stand, and here's one you can take locally and make a difference.

The Des Moines Sunday Register (September 1, 2002 edition) published this list of changes to civil liberties since September 11. It was in the print (but not online) edition of the paper accompanying the opinion article Lessons in Freedoms, Rights" by Rekha Basu. Thanks to NACDL Board Member and criminal defense attorney Priscilla Forsythe of Spirit Lake, Iowa for retyping it so we could include it here:

"Some of the fundamental changes to Americans' legal rights by the Bush administration and the USA Patriot Act following the terror attacks are:

Freedom of Association: Government may monitor religious and political institutions without suspecting criminal activity to assist terror investigation

Freedom of Information: Government has closed once-public immigration hearings, has secretly detained hundreds of people without charges, and has encouraged bureaucrats to resist public-records requests.

Freedom of Speech: Government may prosecute librarians or keepers of any other records if they tell anyone that the government subpoenaed information related to a terror investigation. The FBI won't say how many public libraries it has checked in order to determine who is getting particular books or looking up certain information on computers. A University of Illinois survey of nearly 2,000 libraries in December and January determined that the agency searched one of every nine of the nations largest libraries.

Right to Legal Representation: Government may monitor federal prison jailhouse conversations between attorneys and clients and deny lawyers to Americans accused of crimes.

Freedom from Unreasonable Searches: Government may search and seize Americans' papers and effects without probable cause to assist terror investigation.

Trial: Government may jail Americans without a trial.

Right to Liberty: Americans may be jailed without being charged or being able to confront witnesses against them.

Other Changes: Government may listen to suspects on any telephones they might use, not just on a specific phone. The FBI and intelligence agents may share information, an unprecedented shift away from a 24-year-old policy that placed a high wall between domestic law enforcement officials and the CIA. The Treasury Department may target banks and foreign countries deemed havens for money-laundering. The Immigration and Naturalization Service may hold noncitizens up to seven days without charges and detain them indefinitely if they are considered a threat to national security.

Now: At least 147 people remain in custody in the United States, Seventy-four of those were in custody for immigration violations, 73 on secret federal criminal charges, and an undisclosed number as "material witnesses," according to Justice Department court filings. The detainees were among an estimated 1,200 rounded up under the government's post-Sept. 11 secret arrests, detentions and interrogations.

Internationally, nearly 600 people from Afghanistan, Pakistan and 30 other nations were captured by U.S. soldiers and taken to the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay where they remain, and an undisclosed number are being held at a U.S. air base in Bagram, Afghanistan. The military Wants to add more that 200 cells at Guantanamo because space is running out.

Court rulings: A U.S. district judge has ordered the government to identify domestic detainees and their lawyers before the end of the month. The Justice Department has appealed.

A Cincinnati-based federal appeals court has ordered the government to open deportation hearings, ruling unconstitutional the policy of barring public and media from deportation hearings deemed a "special interest" to the anti-terrorism campaign.

Another U.S. district judge ruled the Cuba detainees don't have a right to U.S. court hearings.

What's ahead: The Senate will vote on President Bush's plan for a Department of Homeland Security, including his proposals to create a national identity card and a civilian corps to report suspicious activities in neighborhoods around the country.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will decide whether an American citizen held incommunicado by the military has a right to a lawyer.

A special national security appeals court will consider how much and what kinds of information intelligence agencies can give federal prosecutors and investigators."

Through Political Parrhesia we found the 2002 First Amendment Report disclosing that support for the First Amendment has declined.

49 of Americans polled think the First Amendment provides too many protections. Last year only 39 felt this way.

It gets worse. According to the Freedom Forum press release on the study :

"More than four in 10 said they would limit the academic freedom of professors and bar criticism of government military policy." (Muzzle Instapundit? No way!)

"About half of those surveyed said government should be able to monitor religious groups in the interest of national security, even if that means infringing upon religious freedom. "

"More than four in 10 said the government should have greater power to monitor the activities of Muslims living in the United States than it does other religious groups."

This survey on the state of the first amendment has been conducted annually since 1997 by the Center for Survey Research & Analysis at the University of Connecticut.

The study "examines public attitudes toward freedom of speech, press, religion and the rights of assembly and petition."

American Journalism Review magazine was a partner in this year's study, and the complete results of the study are in its September issue. You can also access and download them here.

Columnist Earl Ofari Hutchinson weighs in on Alternet on the issue of the new Delaware police "jump squads."

In A Troubling Real Life Minority Report Hutchinson says:

"...the Wilimington police policy, even if there are no constitutional issues at stake, is a horrible policy. It criminalizes those whose only crime is being the wrong color, and in the wrong place at the wrong time. A promo line for Minority Report warned, " You can’t hide, get ready to run."

"Beware: The actions of the Wilmington police, and any others tempted to follow their lead, could make those watchwords for us all. "